Public Whip Count

December 26, 2009

Posted by: Chris

Knee-deep into an interesting article about the efforts of librarian Charles Gehring to rediscover New York City as New Amsterdam is this fascinating vignette about the anti-gay persecution, and ultimate death, of an important early Dutch leader in the area:

Years
later, van den Bogaert was made commander of Fort Orange, site of
present-day Albany, but fled back into Indian country after his fellow
colonists discovered he was gay. Van den Bogaert was pursued by the
Dutch, captured and brought back, but he escaped when a sheet of
floating ice damaged the fort. He drowned in the Hudson before he got
very far.

That's a far cry from the famous tolerance toward homosexuality we associate with NYC, the Dutch and Old Amsterdam, albeit with some notable exceptions. Any takers for a van den Bogaert statue for the Village or Chelsea?